I can't believe I've never seen this before. This is a great limited-animation version of a classic Poe story, narrated by James Mason.
Sidebar: Mason would, of course, go on to play Nabokov's famous pervert Humbert Humbert a few years later, and Mason and Humbert both adored Poe. "Annabel Lee" plays a huge part in Lolita, both book and film, and you can hear Mr. Mason reading that poem, and the full text of "The Tell-Tale Heart," from a recording made in 1959.
I love the UPA animation style -- all blocky and textured, and focused more on design and mood than movement or simple gags. Of course, this one has no laughs at all, and is so moody that the British Film Board classified this cartoon as "X," for adults only.
It was unusual at the time to have a cartoon ignore comedy, and what's even more unusual is its pedigree: the writer was Bill Scott, who would go on to write Rocky and Bullwinkle (and voice the antlered member of that duo until his death), and the director would also make his name directing the moose and squirrel.
This film is stylized and impressionistic, in keeping with the story's wholly unreliable narrator. The film inexplicably links the fearful eye with mundane objects, turning a water jug or a clock's face into objects of horror. I love the poetry of the shadows, and the whole bold ambitious spirit. This is great animation art.
(A note on today's buy link: the only way to purchase this film, as far as I can tell, is on the original DVD release of Hellboy. But it's cheap, and would be worth it just to have this cartoon forever.)
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